The transition from second to short for Eric Sogard hasn’t been smooth.

The talk since spring training has been about the A’s depth.

It’s easy to see why Oakland wanted to get players like Craig Gentry and Nick Punto and Sam Fuld into the fold. They can play multiple positions, and when injuries crop up, the A’s would be covered.

Not so much right now, though. Starting shortstop Jed Lowrie is on the disabled list with a broken right finger. His backup, Punto, is on the disabled list with a hamstring injury.

That means second baseman Eric Sogard and minor league callup Andy Parrino have to play short. Sogard, the veteran, gets the bulk of the playing time against right-handed pitchers, but he’s not the player at shortstop that Lowrie is.

Lowrie is not Ozzie Smith. But his defense has been better this year, even if his range isn’t terrific. He can get a ball and start a double play. He makes some errors, but who doesn’t?

A’s Jed Lowrie’s runs, RBIs and doubles are close to 2013, even if his average is way, way down.

This has been a tough stretch for Jed Lowrie.

For the longest time his luck at the plate was so bad that manager Bob Melvin compared it to Josh Reddick’s, and Reddick is notorious for hitting balls well that wind up being caught.

Things may be starting to change for Lowrie, although he lost a single and a possible RBI when Austin Jackson made a tremendous diving catch against Lowrie in the fourth inning of Monday’s 5-4 loss to the Tigers.

Lowrie caught a bit of a break when a soft two-out flare to left field fell in for him to bring in the A’s first runs in the sixth.

Josh Donaldson and Jed Lowrie (right) are two of the four A’s who rank in the AL All-Star balloting announced Tuesday.

You have to dig deep to get to the last A’s position player to make an American League All-Star team.

Try catcher Ramon Hernandez, back in 2003.

If the first release of AL All-Star votes are any indication, that streak may be about to end. Third baseman Josh Donaldson had a lead of over 50,000 votes on the Rays’ Evan Longoria, Derek Norris was third at catcher behind Matt Wieters and Brian McCann while Brandon Moss (DH) and Jed Lowrie (shortstop) both ranked fifth at their positions.

“It’s not a new story,’’ Moss said of the lack of representation before this year. “We know J.D. should have been there last year. Red (Josh Reddick) should have been there in 2012.’’

Donaldson said the voting isn’t just about him but about the overall quality of the names on the roster that are producing.

“I feel like we have a bunch of guys in this clubhouse who are very good players and who are eventually going to garner national attention,’’ he said. “There’s a reason we’ve won the number games we have the last few years (94 in 2012, 96 last year and 31 in 51 games this year). It’s because we have really good players in the clubhouse.’’

The A’s have 221 regular-season wins since the start of the 2012 season. The second-best team in the AL over that stretch has 210, Texas.

Donaldson took it a little bit personally last week when college basketball voice Dick Vitale described the roster as composed of “no names.’’

“I don’t think that we are no-names,’’ he said. “We have guys in this clubhouse who go out there on a daily basis and prove to people across the country that they’re pretty good baseball players.’’

This could be, maybe even should be a breakthrough year for the A’s offense vis-à-vis the All-Star Game. Oakland came into Thursday having scored 258 runs the most in the American League.

Since the All-Star break last year, Donaldson has scored more runs (81) than any other player in the league. Lowrie has hit the most doubles (36). Moss is tied with the Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion for the most homers (28) and has the outright lead with the most RBIs (85).

The odd part is that Norris, and to a lesser extent, Moss, has garnered the recognition without playing every day. Norris (.316, five homers, 24 RBIs) has only started 30 of the 51 games and wasn’t in the lineup Tuesday. Moss had started 44 times in left, right, at first base and as the DH.

Manager Bob Melvin, who hadn’t been willing to say it explicitly before Tuesday, said neither should be considered a part-time player.

“They started out as platoon guys,’’ Melvin said. “Moss has played all but one game this year (including coming off the bench). So I wouldn’t consider him a platoon player. And really Derek has thrust himself into this role based on production. Today’s a day off for him. He’s had a pretty rough schedule catching.

“You get that moniker and it’s difficult to get past that at times. But certainly if you look at the voting, they are getting looked at the way that they should.’’

The manager suggested that the A’s are being seen more now as a team comprised of good players rather than as “the little engine that could.’’

“Nationally we are getting recognition as a team,’’ he said. “So I think as a whole, people are starting to look at us other than as `that team’ but are starting to notice the individual players.’’

There are many things – spiteful, nasty things – that can be said about the Oakland Coliseum, now a half-century old.

When the concrete and steel edifice has people added to the mix, though, things change.

For eight inning Saturday, Oakland A’s fans seemed content to wait for post-game fireworks with the A’s offense unable to go anywhere against Washington starter Tanner Roark. But all it took was a leadoff single in the ninth inning by John Jaso to get the fans’ blood surging.

When in short order Jed Lowrie doubled and Josh Donaldson single, each driving in a run, the place couldn’t have been much louder if it was October and not April.

A’s reliever Sean Doolittle has learned to like this about the Coliseum.

“You get 35,000 people in here and the fans will go crazy if you give them a chance, any chance,’’ Doolittle said. He pitched two scoreless innings and picked up the win when Jaso’s double scored Nick Punto in the 10th for a 4-3 win.

“It feels like no place else,’’ Doolittle said. “The fans get going and the feeling on the bench is that `we will find a way.’ When it comes together like it did tonight, it’s spectacular.’’

Jed Lowrie, who scored on Josh donaldson’s homer immediately after being hit by a pitch Thursday, says he hopes HBP issue is over.

A’s shortstop Jed Lowrie, who lives in the off-season in Houston where he played in 2012, rents out his house during the season to one of the Astros.

And while he doesn’t want to name names, he said Friday it wasn’t Paul Clemens, the Astros pitcher who has made it an avocation to throw at Lowrie. On Thursday, Clemens hit Lowrie on the backside and promptly got ejected for his pains.

Lowrie was asked what the word might be for renting your house out to someone who his holding a grudge at 60 feet, six inches. Funny? Awkward?

“I’d more describe it as bad karma,’’ Lowrie said. “Fortunately that’s not the case.’’